Process for cooling water and cooling tower

Abstract

Water to be cooled is sprayed through water spray ports at a bottom of an upper water vessel into a filler unit having a plurality of heat exchange surface members extending in parallel with each other to define flow passages between them and concurrently ambient air is sucked transversely into the flow passages. Thus, the water flowing down over the heat exchange surface members is cooled by the ambient air in a cross flow manner. In such cooling of water, some of the flow passages are sectioned so as to supply the water in the upper water vessel to some of flow passages so that in a normal condition with no fear of white smoke being generated, the water is sprayed over all of the heat exchange surface members and direct cooling is effected in every flow passage by the ambient air. In a condition with a possibility of the white smoke being generated, spray of the water into some of the flow passages is interrupted so that the direct cooling by the ambient air of the water in the flow passages into which the water is sprayed is effected simultaneously with dry heating of the ambient air flowing through the flow passages into which no water is sprayed and wet air resulting from the direct cooling is mixed with dry air resulting from the dry heating. As a result, the white smoke is prevented from being generated.